Iraqis tell of unions' plight
OIL WORKERS FIGHT FOR IMPROVEMENTS
By Becky Bartindale
Mercury News
June 20, 2005
Two leaders from one of Iraq's most powerful labor unions visited San Jose on Sunday as part of a national tour to publicize the plight of working people in occupied Iraq. The top leaders of the General Union of Oil Employees, which was banned along with other independent unions by Saddam Hussein, called for Iraqi self-determination and an end to the U.S. occupation.
``The American administration claims it is bringing democracy and freedom and human rights to Iraq,'' said Hassan Juma'a Awad Al Asade, chief of the union's executive branch. ``This is the third year of occupation and we see no improvement in our situation.''
While most Iraqis were happy to see Saddam go, he said through an interpreter, they have come to see U.S. forces as occupiers, not liberators.
He and Fleh Abbood Umara, general secretary of the oil workers' union, are part of a six-member delegation of Iraqi trade unionists who are traveling to more than 20 cities in the United States. Last week, the group met with members of Congress to discuss support for greater involvement of Iraqi unions in rebuilding Iraq. Both Juma'a Awad Al Asade and Fleh Abbood Umara are longtime oil workers who were imprisoned for human rights and union activities by Saddam's government.
The Iraqis spoke out strongly against U.S. efforts to privatize all Iraqi businesses except for the oil industry. Among other things, workers fear privatization would drive high unemployment even higher.
``Privatization is a kind word but the substance of it is to transfer public property to private property,'' said Juma'a Awad Al Asade. ``People with wealth and capital will go up, and the rest of the classes will go down and there will be elimination of the middle class.''
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